Mama Elizabeth is from Bamendakwe village, Bamenda 1- Sub division in Mezam division of the Northwest region. She lives in Bamendankwe and fellowships at the Ntenefor assembly of TACC Bamendankwe. She is about 80 years old and has three children, two males and a female with many grandchildren. The two sons are famers and mama lives with one of them. The lady too is married.
About 20 years ago, she developed a small spot on the nose and thought it was just a mere pimple but as time went on it became something else and was finally diagnosed to be cancerous.Presently,the situation has really deteriorated to the extent that her nose is almost completely chopped up as can be seen in the picture. Even in the church mama has been denied fellowship because of her state. According to the family, mama’s situation is hopeless so they do not see any need going to the hospital again.
Some months ago, one brother by name Prosper Numfor who went visiting the mother-in-law in Ntenefor quarter decided to fellowship with this assembly and this is how he came in contact with mama. When he saw the situation, he had so much sympathy on her and decided to get to the family to know the history of the situation. When he met the two sons of mama, he was told that they have been to the hospital and were told that there is no solution so they do not have any money to waste any longer. Brother Prosper tried to no avail to persuade them that something can still be done even to relief her from the pains. Filled with a lot of sympathy for mama this brother decided to contact some friends in America and Finland and by God’s grace they were able to provide the sum of 250,000 FRS for him to take her to the hospital.
When he received the money, he was so happy and went back to mama’s children thinking that they would even accompany him to the hospital with mama but to his greatest dismay, they all refused, but fortunately the wife of one of the son’s to mama accepted to go with him. In the Bamenda regional hospital, the doctor after consulting referred her to a specialist in Yaounde.When they went to Yaounde, the specialist doctor proposed two options, to either operate and replace the nose with an artificial one or to do radiotherapy and destroy the cells and relief her of the pains. Considering mama’s age the second option was preferred because he said the first will be so painful for her and in addition the cancerous cells have gone beyond the nose level. Before going to Yaounde, Prosper still pleaded with the family to send someone to accompany him with the sick mother but all to no avail. When I went there I did not have the opportunity to talk with them. On my first visit, to the compound I actually met one of the sons around but while still greeting mama he left without letting us know. Due to the fact that mama is so active and sometimes restless, it was so difficult for him to travel with her alone so he had to call one of his students who lived with him in Nkambe where he works to accompany him. The doctor in Yaounde said radiotherapy in Douala will be done for six weeks. The unfortunate thing here is that they will have to rent a room in Douala for the period of treatment. Prosper said that he has pleaded with some friends in Douala to lodge them but everyone is skeptical with the situation of mama. Finally, he asked one of the friends to locate a room around the hospital but the cheapest room is 5,000 FRS per day.
The cost of living in Douala for six weeks is estimated as follows:
– Transport fare to and fro for three of them 35,000 FRS
– Cost of radiotherapy 300,000 FRS
– Lodging 5000 FRS x45days 225,000 FRS
– Feeding for three persons, 3000 FRS x 45 days 135,000 FRS
TOTAL 695,000 FRS
Of the 250,000 FRS provided by the two friends, bro Prosper said 110,000 FRS has been used already so he has a balance of 140,000 FRS. This implies the total amount required is about 555,000 FRS.
We therefore plead with the brethren of TACC-Friends to help raise this money to relief this mother of her pains.
Sincerely,
Sister Kongyu Sylvie
[TACC-Friends supported this case with $1,204.]
